Chapter 7 · The Blood That Seals

"Let go."

Cain's hand is still locked around my wrist. The map burns brighter, symbols crawling up my forearm like they're burrowing under the skin.

"Not until you tell me what you're feeling." His thumb presses against my pulse. "The bond's screaming at me. You're in pain."

"I'm fine."

"You're lying."

Rex clears his throat from the doorway. "Hate to break up the lover's spat, but that thing on her arm? It's broadcasting her location to every Lunaris-hunting bastard within three territories."

I yank my wrist free. The symbols flare white-hot, and I bite down hard to keep from crying out. My mother's name pulses at the edge of the map, vivid and impossible to ignore.

"She's not going anywhere." Cain moves between me and the door, his voice dropping into that deadly calm he uses before he kills someone. "Your brother's territory is a slaughterhouse, Aiden. You know that."

Aiden's slumped against the wall, blood still seeping through the bandages Rex tied around his ribs. He looks half-dead, but his eyes are sharp when they meet mine. "It's not just my brother's anymore. He's been gathering loyalists. Wolves who think the Lunaris bloodline should've been exterminated decades ago."

"Great."